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2009-2010

Over two days in November, the Center convened leading thinkers in the area of health metrics evaluation to develop consensus on an appropriate set of metrics and tools for evaluating the impact of innovation on global health. The workshop brought together 30 distinguished scholars, medical researchers, and practitioners with experience in law, economics, philosophy, business, medicine, and public health. The sessions focused on calibrating a fair and effective metric for evaluation of health impact, identifying methods of data collection, and making evaluations in a real-world setting. The workshop was cosponsored with colleagues at Yale University working on an initiative to establish a Health Impact Fund that would pool contributions from international governments in order to allow pharmaceutical companies to register new medicines and treatments in order to receive direct payment proportional to their impact on global health. This innovative way of conceiving reward mechanisms is still in its early stages of development but is being internationally considered as an alternative to current reward and incentive schemes which leave the costs of essential medicines beyond the means of people living in poorer regions of the globe. Presenters and participants in the conference included highly distinguished scholars and practitioners such as Frances Kamm, the Littauer Professor of Philosophy and Public Policy at Harvard Kennedy School; Christopher Murray, Director of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation; Erik Nord, Senior Researcher at the Norwegian Institute of Public Health in Oslo; Aiden Hollis, Professor and Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Policy Research of the University of Calgary; Thomas Pogge, the Leitner Professor of Philosophy and International Affairs at Yale University; and Research Director at the Centre for the Study of Mind in Nature, University of Oslo. Harvard Law School faculty participants included Yochai Benkler, I. Glenn Cohen, William Fisher and Benjamin Roin.

Tags

biotechnology   global health   i. glenn cohen   international   pharmaceuticals   public health   regulation